It was all doable, and we did it
December 16, 2024 12:02 PM   Subscribe

As a kid, I wanted to fly. Like Superman. The recurring dream never materialized but the fantasy took flight when I met the mountain bike. The history of the early mountain bike is often seen through the lens of a handful of guys who modified their old Schwinns back in the mid-1970s. However, as the lone woman participating in those early riding adventures, I snapped a few photographs along the way, capturing the age of innocence often associated with those seminal days. A small group of trailblazers, pioneering a new course of action riding these old relics, would soon change the future of cycling. from I Learned to Fly… On A Mountain Bike: Wende Cragg Documents the Birth of Mountain Biking [Radavist] posted by chavenet (4 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
I attempted to mountain bike once, down Sweitzer Mountain in Idaho. It looked easy enough from the ski lift. Little did I know that brakes, like, just don't work on loose gravel. And the first 100 switchbacks were all loose gravel. I got maybe 3 switchbacks down before my "YOU ARE GOING TO DIE" alarm got too loud to ignore, and ended up carrying the bike back up the mountain and taking the chair lift back down.

I have enormous respect for people who mountain bike at high speeds.
posted by grumpybear69 at 12:52 PM on December 16 [2 favorites]


Wende has been my friend for over 50 years. We shared many bicycle adventures. Her photographs are essential to my definitive history of the sport of mountain biking.
posted by Repack Rider at 1:16 PM on December 16 [7 favorites]


Hey Repack Rider … you are in the film! That is wild. You invented mountain biking! I am swooning a bit here. Wild…
posted by chavenet at 1:20 PM on December 16 [3 favorites]


You invented mountain biking!

I invented downhill bicycle racing on steep dirt roads. Evolution did the rest.

The name of the sport comes from the fact that the lawyer Gary Fisher and I hired to trademark "MountainBikes" screwed the pooch.
posted by Repack Rider at 1:29 PM on December 16 [3 favorites]


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